Most Facebook staff believe company NOT responsible for curbing election disinfo | Hacker News Reader

Most Facebook staff believe company NOT responsible for curbing election disinfo

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19 pointsKroeler20 comments

What scares me is the sheer amount of conspiracy stuff on Facebook. My dad is on Facebook, he's 80, and the stuff he talks to me about on the phone is just amazing. I initially thought it was only him, but then my sister-in-law's mom started sending me videos, and I was faced with the same crazy stuff.

I'm not sure what groups my dad is in or how they contact him, but damn there are a lot of old folks talking about all the same crazy stuff. I really wish Facebook would address some of this crazy nonsense. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to tell my dad that it is not George Soros or Bill Gates behind the conspiracy.

Sorry for rambling on...

No, this is the danger we are in. People are letting the "marketplace of ideas" try to sort things out. However, this is like letting a disease ravage a population until it achieves herd immunity. If it has no natural immunity, it never will. Humans do NOT have a natural immunity to propaganda. They are carriers for it. We are the mosquitos of the malarial swamp of misinformation that is plaguing the planet currently.

Many folks at Facebook know the terrible plight we are in. But there are enough people not wanting to rock the boat currently that they have not felt the urgency to change. It feels like we are reaching a breaking point, though.

I think "marketplace of ideas" fails as soon as you have curated feeds.

They’re notorious for yes men

The alternative is Facebook being the arbiters of truth. I wouldn’t want them to be that, and they probably don’t want to be that either.

We're the same, our parents tell us things we feel are "breathtaking" and super confused.

The other thing I'm starting to realize is that a lot of people are falling for more "comfortable" ideas.

Like I think honestly that it's easier to believe the Corona virus is less severe or even a hoax because if you can make that leap, you feel better about it.

Exactly the same for climate change. If you don't like the idea that we're destroying our future, well you can just choose that it's not real.

On a side note, Facebook was constantly hounding me to come work there, I didn't and personally, I'm really really glad I didn't, even though so many of my friends made good financially from working there.

They’re really easy and actually fun to get into. And of course Facebook and YouTube’s recommendation algorithms help a lot. You get to speculate about what’s going on behind the scenes and what not without so called rationalists ruining the fun.

I guess Facebook is the new “talk radio” but the amount of info it can deliver into your brain is a factor more than what talk radio used to deliver.

This was a survey done by Blind. For those who do not know, Blind is a social network that reveals your employer but hides your identity.

Blind members are self-selecting, and the site is chock full of trolls. So this tell us nothing about what "Most Facebook staff" actually think. The survey respondents may even be lying about currently working at Facebook.

I like Blind but we should be realistic about what it is.

Some people read that prompt and think legally not responsible

Some people read that prompt and think socially not responsible

Some people read that prompt and think socially not responsible in different countries

Some people read that prompt and think legally and socially not responsible

So it is prudent to understand that not everyone is answering the same question

I mean at least half of the employees seem to believe it so that's not bad I guess, but I honestly would like to hear what justification the other half has. Facebook is in the business of processing and distributing information, so dealing with disinformation seems to be in their courtyard. Do these people also think banks have no responsibility to prevent scams or fraudulent transactions, or that Amazon or Ebay have no responsibility to detect fraudulent vendors?

What confuses me about internet platforms and their relationship to responsibility is, we've always had platforms. If a barkeeper serves minors alcohol or someone starts some illegal business in the backroom, you're probably on the hook. Do internet giants just get an excuse because they're huge?

The problem is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act absolves the platforms from having to regulate decency on their platforms.

https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230#:~:text=47%20U.S.C.,of%20t...).

If they were to actually ban disinformation, they would have to ban mainstream news sources.

They'd also have to ban the political campaigns.

Denial. When people ask how can software engineers in companies like Facebook feel no sense of responsibility about what their building, is that they just trapped in a mechanism of denial. There is NO WAY that someone can otherwise be a well-educated computer scientist and at the same time think that anything Facebook does is acceptable for our society at large, or that it’s having any meaningful positive impact on society. And no, save me the “I can keep up with my family and friends around the world” bullshit.

Facebook is on the road to becoming 4chan

More akin to Encyclopedia Dramatica, but point taken.

The problem is that the algorithms reinforce ideas by feeding in more and more. The crazier it is the more it reinforces. This is Facebook’s fault. They should feel responsible for this affect.

They're not. People can share whatever nonsense with one another that they like.

Even if those "people" are foreign governments peddling divisive propaganda. The founders are truly smiling down on our unrelenting commitment to free speech. /s

They're not.

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